It is often desirable, or necessary, to generate new parameter values associated with components. For example, to increase security, it may be desirable to periodically change a password that is required to access a database component, or to obtain a new certificate. In order to change the password, a new password is generated, and the database component is informed of the new password. Moreover, any other component that accesses the database component must be made aware of the new password so that the database component allows such other components to access the database component. Thus, in a relatively large distributed system, hundreds or even thousands of components may require notification of the new password.